Over the past fifteen years, the use of electronic messaging systems such as e-mail and instant messaging has experienced tremendous growth. People regularly send and receive e-mails and instant messages at all times of the day from work, from home, and even from mobile devices. Indeed, for many people, e-mail and instant messaging has become a primary means of communication.
While e-mail, instant messaging, and other such electronic messaging systems represent great technologies and have enhanced communication in our society, they do not come without costs. As an example, e-mail users spend significant amounts of time reviewing and replying to the numerous e-mails that they receive daily. This task has been made more cumbersome and time consuming by the large quantities of junk e-mail, or SPAM, that continuously flows into e-mail in-boxes. E-mail users must sort this SPAM in order to get to the e-mail that he or she desires to view. Instant messaging users are presented with similar problems in discerning from whom to receive messages.
The dramatic rise in e-mail and instant messaging usage has come at a cost to the organizations that maintain computer networks as well. In order to service the growing electronic messaging traffic, Internet service providers (ISP's) and corporate computer departments have needed to continuously upgrade their systems. Furthermore, additional personnel are required to run these systems and must be routinely trained on the new systems. Frequently, despite the best efforts of ISP's and corporate computer departments, the growth in demand for electronic messaging services outpaces the added capacity provided by system upgrades.
Applicant has recognized that requiring e-mail users to sift through ever increasing amounts of e-mail, much of which is junk e-mail, and relying upon ISP's and corporate computer departments to continuously upgrade their equipment to service the electronic messaging, is a less than optimal situation. Applicant has recognized that there exists a need to intelligently regulate the flow of e-mail and instant messages, particularly that which is commercial in nature. Indeed, systems and methods are needed to monitor the types and amounts of electronic messages that are being received and to regulate those electronic messages depending upon the source and characteristics of the messages. It would be a significant improvement in the art to provide systems and methods for recognizing junk messages and limiting the amount that is received in a given period. Such an improvement would reduce the amount of SPAM received by users and would preserve scarce system resources for legitimate messages.